August 20th, continued

The Montgomery homestead... this was LMM's paternal grandfather's home, a place that she loved to visit. This home and her uncle's home at Park Corner (across the way), out of all of the sites on the island, still retain that sense of what they were back then. Looking from the front porch of Montgomery Manor, I can see how she could be so inspired to write of the world before her. Again, the hills rolled out before me down from the pulpit stone in the front yard towards a pond or lake so blue that it's unreal.

This was an old house that has been lived in and has preserved much of the original furniture and household items (most of that not out of historical significance--- rather, these items we used. The bookshelf from the 1700s, wavy glass windows revealing a set of Encyclopedias from the 1800s (?) and many of her signed books. The old family bible. Magog the china dog, from the 1700s of Gog and Magog fame. The china fruit basket from the real "blue chest". Her grandmother's rosebud tea set that looks just liike my great-grandmother's tea set (except that this one was complete.) And everything could be touched and photographed to your heart's content as the owners didn't mind--- afterall, they had been touched for this long and survived, hadn't they? (well, Magog was behind glass to prevent him meeting Gog's fate!)

The Campbell House at Park Corner-- the house that LMM had called Silver Bush-- was equally nice.

An aside, here-- something that really bothers me, and MUST bother the people here, is that, to get the tourist traffic, places like Silver Bush need to be called things like "The Anne of Green Gables" museum, even though nothing from the house was associated with Anne... except for the "Lake of Shining Waters" across from the house. Anne is only one book, while LMM peppered so many of her novels with true stories from her family history and her own history.

But, back to Silver Bush. Right at the entrance, you can see the infamous Blue Chest of Eliza Montgomery (renamed Rachel Ward in "The Story Girl")-- it's so much bigger than I had imagined and, upsstairs you can see the bulk of the contents that hadn't been returned to family. Her wedding dress and linens, beautiful crochet and lace work... all condemned to never see use. They also have a chest with crochet and lace by LMM and her family. I loved seeing work that looks so very much like those that my grandmothers still make.

The room where she was married was in that house-- people still get married there, particularly Japanese couples who are fans of Anne.

And then, with some time left on my clock before my dinner reservation, it was off to Green Gables...